Dixon plants thousands of tulip bulbs each year, and they are all bursting forth right now. A huge section of Memphis turns out to take family photos and roam around. It's kind of a fun show, especially on a Saturday, if you're interested in people more than in unobstructed views of the flowers. I settled on a bench and watched the flow of people and sketched the ones who stayed still long enough. I wasn't particularly happy with the way I did the blossoms, but I felt like this captured the bustle and color of the overall scene.

I'm trying to figure out how to help my dad with taxes for the first time ever, and it's a LOT. So I'm also trying to sketch a little along the way for happiness. I did this one the other night, and it's my favorite sketch lately. I really piled on some layers to get the watercolor that dark, though I also used a black brush pen on Henry's darker parts. He's a good model and even better companion, and I'm grateful.

I've been trying to remember to stash my sketching bag in easy reach of the couch. Henry is expressive in sleep and fun to draw. I had a low energy day yesterday, but I've been missing drawing, so I did a quick one of Henry on the sofa with his paw across my leg. I had planned to try to get my favorite lamp in too, but I sketched Henry big and only managed the base of it. The top sketch is from a couple of weeks ago. His ears make me happy.

I've been really busy with family business lately and not getting much art time, but I am taking breaks to get out in the sunshine and enjoy spring. It refills the cup. Henry and I took a lovely afternoon hiding deep in the old forest so I could sketch and enjoy the wildflowers, and I decided to put him in the foreground of this first one. I did a number of sketches of Mr. Darcy leaning against my knees or sleeping on my feet, and the intimacy of those sketches makes me happy. Here I had looped Henry's leash over my boot while I made a mess of sketching some trillium. I did this second sketch after, which I was really pleased with. It much better captured the full joy of that afternoon.

The next day my sister Erin suggested an impromptu visit to the family farm to pick the daffodils that have naturalized over the 19th century home site out there (the house was gone before I was born). She and her boys met me out there. They all moved crazy fast, and I got Wesley (the smaller one bending over) too big, but it was fun to catch that moment on the fly. I stayed after and finished the background. Always draw the bits that are going to wander off first.

Yesterday I went back to the park after spending most of my day doing business-y things instead of making art. It felt lovely to walk and sketch. This tree has been calling my name for several weeks now, and I enjoyed settling in to sketch it.

The weather has been utterly gorgeous this week, and I'm trying to get out and take advantage of it with sketching walks and patio meals. I'm low energy this week, but wandering around the park with a sketchbook is just right, and Henry and I have been over several different days. Such pleasure.

I had a lovely sunshine-y brunch with two good friends plus Henry on Sunday, and afterward we came back to my place for them to help me eat chocolate cake and for sketching. I've been working to get my house better lately, and it felt great to have friends in enjoying it with me and making art together. I have grocery store tulips on my coffee table at the moment, and I love their ongoing shape changes. We all sketched the tulips, and Christina and I both sketched Elizabeth as well. Such a perfect afternoon. 

I had a lovely farm day a while ago before the crazy cold rolled in, and I did a couple of sketches I forgot to scan in (it's been a busy month). I love the winter green cover of the fields against the bare trees. And later a cardinal posed for me in the tree near the bird feeder. I tested out a new blue watercolor marker from Windsor and Newton for the sky. I love the juiciness of the color.

With snow/ice in the forecast, I gave myself an outing before it hit. It's been a busy few weeks, and I hadn't been to Dixon lately. I've seen several lovely paintings by artists I follow of interiors at museums, and it made me want to go sketch in my own favorite museum. I couldn't have chosen a better day. Almost no one was there -- I think everyone must have been out buying bread and milk instead. So I settled in the floor and did an overall gallery sketch after I walked through the two new shows. There are two modern shows now, both of which are unusual and really fun. This retrospective of Floyd Newsom is wonderful for sketching -- huge, bright, colorful pieces. I love how he's chosen his own vocabulary of symbolic items to work with, much like Dine or Thiebaud or the Dutch still life painters, going back a bit. I'll enjoy going several times and looking at more details.

The other thing I loved was a piece from just last year done while he was in the hospital. Like several of his other works, it's a larger piece stitched together from individual sheets of paper. It was a manageable size to be working on in his last illness, and it reminded me of Manet's last flowers done in his sickbed or Matisse in his wheelchair cutting out collage shapes for others to place for him. I have always hoped to be making art right through till the end, and it's lovely to see another artist who managed that so beautifully. 

It was a great day out, to recenter myself in a space so dear to me. I'm hoping to get there more often this spring. A weekly pop in would be good for both my spirit and my creativity.

I was having a run around day a couple of weeks ago, and it was sunny and halfway warm for the end of January. I felt like stopping at my favorite deck and having a chai. I had just started a new sketchbook, back to my old favorite Handbook after trying something less satisfying, and I also had a new yellow watercolor marker. I did the sketch above with the watercolor and then did a second one of umbrellas and the sycamore across the street that I love. My fountain pens hadn't really worked on the paper in the previous book, so I'm enjoying getting back to them. And sketching a treat slows me down to both appreciate and remember it.

A couple of days ago I got my favorite Lucy J's bakery croissant at the farmers market and came home for second tea. I hadn't been sketching in a few days, so it was nice to take a slow Saturday morning and enjoy both the sketching and the croissant.

Henry and I went out the other day to take advantage of a gorgeous, sunny afternoon at Elmwood Historic Cemetery, one of my favorite longtime sketching spots. I hadn't really registered this hobbit-looking grave before and was completely charmed by the hillside entrance and round door.

After a bit we walked on to one of the many stunning trees out there. I got a box of Windsor and Newton watercolor markers recently. I'd had a single blue one years ago that I loved for its broad tip and its lush color, so I took a chance on a box. I tried both greens on this piece. Greens are tricky, and these both felt a little too chemically, though my choice of Paradise Blue ink to start with in a fountain pen  probably pushed them even further toward the cool end. The tree has some gorgeous blue undertones I was trying to catch, and it is always fun to play with different colors. I'm happy with bits of this but not the overall color tone.

I went back to my regular black pen and watercolor for the third sketch. It's a closeup of a magnolia I'd spotted as we started out but wanted to walk for a bit before settling down to sketch. I love all the huge old trees out there.

Finally here's another tree sketch from a newish greenway down by the river the other day. This is grey ink with a dip pen and watercolor on top. It seems to thematically go with this entry, so I tucked it on in. I'm trying to branch out and explore some newer places this year, and I really enjoyed this quiet walk with the levee in the background (the yellow band behind the trees).